QUESTION

Whenever you wonder how the world is

working?
Why we have to do thing in a specific way?
How is our society working?
 Could you name the common things in the
following example?
 Car engine
 Human body
 University
 Software
 Manufacturer
 MODULE 1:
INTRODUCTION Dr. Tam Nguyen

TO SYSTEM
SYSTEM STRUCTURES
AND BEHAVIORS
A SYSTEM IS A SET
OF THINGS
INTERCONNECTED
IN SUCH A WAY
THAT THEY
PRODUCE THEIR
OWN PATTERN OF
BEHAVIOUR OVER
TIME
IS IT A
SYSTEM? Can you identify
No Not a system
specific elements?

s
Ye
It’s a system
Are the parts
interconnected Not a system
and dependent on No
each other?

s
Ye
Ye
s

Is the effect When the parts

persistent over work together is
Not a system No Y Not a system
time despite the Ye the effect different No
s
environment? s from each part on
its own?
The Blind
Men and
the Matter
of the
“The behaviour of the system cannot be known by

Elephant
just knowing the elements of which the system is
made” - DHM
 SYSTEMS – MORE THAN THE
SUM OF ITS PARTS
Behaviours can and may include:
• Adaptive
• Dynamic
• Goal-seeking
• Evolutionary

Systems mostly cause their own

behavior; outside events unleash
that behavior
“EVERY SYSTEM IS
PERFECTLY
DESIGNED TO
ACHIEVE THE
RESULTS IT GETS.”
DR. DON BERWICK
A SYSTEM CONSISTS OF:

• Elements

Syste • Interconnections
• Common Purpose

m
 EXAMPLES OF
SYSTEMS
● Digestive system ● Tree
● Sports team ● Forest
● School ● Earth
● City ● Solar system
● Factory ● Galaxy
● Corporation ● IT system

● National Economy
● Animal
Flow of
Information
drives
interconnection
s

Information
holds
systems
INFORMATIO
N
The flow of which often
holds the system
together so when
combined with
knowledge and know-
how they operate as a
collective force.
 WHAT CAN DETERMINE A
SYSTEM’S BEHAVIOUR?
• Purpose & Function working in harmony
• Interconnections married to purpose

• Example:
• Teamwork
• Departments in an organization
AND
DISCOURSE
?
Changing relationships
normally changes a systems
behavior. WHY?

“To ask whether elements,

interconnections, or purpose are
the most important in a system
is to ask an unsystemic
question” – DHM
 FUNCTION
S AND
PURPOS
E are often
 Functions
ascribed to machines
 While, purpose is
associated with human
elements.
 In truth a system has both
because elements are
often intertwined
A system will behave as the
function or purpose
determine
 CHANGING
ELEMENTS
USUALLY HAS THE
LEAST EFFECT;
CHANGING
INTERCONNECTION
S OR PURPOSE IS
USUALLY MORE
DRAMATIC
EXAMPLES
 Change all members of a
sports team vs change rules
of the game or the definition
of winning
 Change people in the
organization vs change the
way of working or the
definition of organizational
success
EXERCISE 1.1
Choose a system and identify the
following:
Elements
Interconnections
Purpose - system behavior

Could your group also identify its inputs

and outputs?
STOCKS AND
FLOWS
  “Changes in stocks set the pace of the dynamics of systems”
A stock can be increased by
 “Stocks are pretty much queues”
decreasing its outflow rate as
well as by increasing its inflow  Most individual and institutional decisions are designed to
rate regulate the levels in stocks.

STOCK
Elements you can see, feel, count
or measure at any given time

There rate of change tends to be slow – so they act as a The memory and history of the changing
buffer or shock absorbers to a system flows within the system
Tốc độ thay đổi có xu hướng chậm - vì vậy chúng hoạt động
như một bộ đệm hoặc bộ giảm xóc cho một hệ thống
  Water in a bathtub
 A population
EXAMPLES  Books in a
OF
STOCKS bookstore
 Wood in a tree
 Money in a bank
 STOCKS CHANGE
OVER TIME VIA
FLOWS
 Workflow
 Information flow
 Both inflow and
outflow
 Inflow

Stock

Outflow

Information flow
 FLOWS
Flows are filling and draining,
births and deaths, purchases and
sales, growth and decay, deposits
and withdrawals, successes and
failures.
A stock can be
increased by
decreasing its
outflow rate as well
as by increasing its
inflow rate
 TYPE - REINFORCING FEEDBACK LOOPS
• Ability to reproduce itself
• Self-enhancing – exponential leanings
• Non linear

Feedback
loops
A feedback loop is a closed chain of causal connections from a stock, through a
set of decisions or rules or physical laws or actions that are dependent on the
level of the stock, and back again through a flow to
change the stock.
Attributes TYPE – BALANCING FEEDBACK LOOPS
• Closed chain of causal connections • Stabilizing – stock equilibrium maintained
• Runs from a stock and is impacted by a set of rules • Goal relevant
• Often dependent upon stock levels • Sources of resistance to change
• Circular and iterative
EXAMPLE OF BALANCING
FEEDBACK LOOPS
Thermostat

Guided missile
Iterative, incremental software
development
 REINFORCING
FEEDBACK LOOPS
 Market collapse: uncertainty -> remove money -> more uncertainty
 Compound interest
 Death march: Too much to do -> work harder -> more bugs -> work even
harder
IF A CAUSES B,
IS IT POSSIBLE
THAT B ALSO
CAUSES A?
DELAYS
Causality and delay
The delays in information mean
that feedback can only effect
future behaviour.
Even non-physical feedback is not
fast enough to correct behaviour it
can only impact the future
behavior
CHANGING NEED TIME
 HEAT TO
Heat from furnace
OUTSIDE
Room temperature

Discrepancy between Discrepancy between

desired and actual room outside and inside
temperature temperatures
A heating system is a
stock maintaining
balancing feedback loop
with natural heat loss or
gain. To establish
equilibrium the goal
must be set high or low
of target to avoid over or
undershoot. Flow does
not respond to flow – it
responds to a change in
the level off the stock
 HOW FEEDBACK
FAILS
 Late, lost, unclear,
incomplete, hard to
interpret information
 Weak, delayed,
resource-constrained,
ineffective response
STOCK
CONTROL &
DELAY
• Perception delay – is the change
in demand for real?
• Response delay – is there a need
to make partial adjustments?
• Deliver delay – If demand is rising
what delays are wholesalers
experiencing of their own?
SYSTEMS FOR POPULATION
AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Systems with
similar feedback
structures
produce similar
dynamic
behaviour
 DELAYS – A
SYSTEM WOULD
NEVER BE
WITHOUT THEM
• They are pervasive
• They have repercussions
• Systems can modify their
behaviours on the back off them
• They lead to oscillations
LIMITS
• In any exponentially growing system with physical aspects
there must be a reinforcing feedback loop driving growth and
a balancing loop acting against this.

• No physical system can grow forever

 SHIFTING
DOMINANCE
• Dominance – when one
feedback loop (reinforcing or
balancing) has hold of a system.
This relationship can be dynamic
and has a profound impact
upon system behaviour.

•When neither feedback loop

dominates the system is said to
be in ‘dynamic equilibrium’ –
cân bằng động

•Example:
• Mindset
• Politics
• Body reaction
REMIND - Elements
SYSTEMS
CONSIST Interconnections
S OF
THREE Function (non-human
THINGS system) or Purpose
(human system)
 SYSTEM
INTERACTIONS
OPERATE
THROUGH
INFORMATION
FLOW
ADDRESS
INCONGRUENT
PURPOSES
System
purposes do not
necessarily
match the
intention of the
designers or
actors within it
 HOW MIGHT
YOU
INTERVENE IN
YOUR
SITUATION TO
IMPROVE THE
SYSTEM?
 Use the system in the previous
EXERCISE exercise and identify its stocks,
flow.
1.2 How would you change the
system and why?
 ANY
QUESTIONS?